


heat haze days

by Hazazel



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Song: Kagerou Daze
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 18:03:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20362768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazazel/pseuds/Hazazel
Summary: The sweltering summer heat blurs the Tokyo landscape, and Tetsurou’s hair is glued to his forehead. Next to him, Kenma doesn’t seem to mind that it’s hot, so hot – Tetsurou’s T-shirt is wet with sweat. The light that cascades from the white hot sun makes him wince, and he doesn’t see immediately that Kenma has pocketed his DS to pet a stray black cat. Where it came from, he has no idea, but it purrs peacefully, its eyes closed.“I don’t like summer,” Kenma whispers.





	heat haze days

**Author's Note:**

> this is a translation of my own fanfic "brume de chaleur". hope you enjoy the angst haha

The sweltering summer heat blurs the Tokyo landscape, and Tetsurou’s hair is glued to his forehead. Next to him, Kenma doesn’t seem to mind that it’s hot, so hot – Tetsurou’s T-shirt is wet with sweat. The light that cascades from the white hot sun makes him wince, and he doesn’t see immediately that Kenma has pocketed his DS to pet a stray black cat. Where it came from, he has no idea, but it purrs peacefully, its eyes closed.

“I don’t like summer,” Kenma whispers, fingers deep in the cat’s fur. He really is the only one Tetsurou would hear that from – that summer isn’t the best season. “I can’t wait for the holidays to be over.”

“Me too,” Tetsurou answers, and it’s true. He likes spending his days with Kenma, in the same garden ever since they were kids, but he misses volleyball, he misses his friends, even Yaku, that says a lot. And he’d do anything for the hot days, that threaten to melt the plastic swings they’re sitting on, to end.

Suddenly, the cat jumps from Kenma’s lap and looks at them insistently. Tetsurou has the feeling it wants them to follow it, but it’s too hot to move. Kenma gets up, though, so he drags his feet behind them, the little black cat and his childhood friend. Faster and faster under the unbearable heat of this summer day. Tetsurou remembers confusedly that it’s the fourteenth of August, before forgetting about it when Kenma starts to run. The cat is now sitting in the middle of a crosswalk, and looks at them while its tail sways. Kenma is still running forward without looking. The traffic lights turn red, and he crosses the road at the same time a truck bursts into view.

Tetsurou’s shout is lost in a disgusting wet sound.

The zebra crossing is now tainted red, and on the other side of the road, so are the cat’s eyes. The very atmosphere takes on a scarlet hue. Tetsurou can’t breathe – the smell of blood floods his nostrils before he crumbles to the ground, and the world turns black.

* * *

Tetsurou’s alarm clock rings. He already knows he doesn’t want to face the day’s heat, but he still goes outside to a little garden and sits down on the swings next to a small silhouette. He made a terrible dream, seeing Kenma next to him is reassuring. It’s hot for a fourteenth of August, so hot that the black cat walking by seems to ripple. It sits on Kenma’s knees like it was always meant to and Tetsurou feels his throat tighten.

Kenma softly says he doesn’t like summer.

Everything is happening like in his dream, word for word, and Tetsurou wants to scream when Kenma gets up to follow the cat.

Crossroads, truck.

Before his eyes go dark, Tetsurou hears the cicadas.

* * *

Sweltering heat. Fourteenth of August. This time, Tetsurou runs with all he has. It was only a bad dream, but he woke up in a sweat and the sight of blood was engraved inside his eyelids. Kenma yelps when he grabs his hand, and the cat he was petting meows loudly as it falls from his lap. Tetsurou doesn’t care – they have to get out, to run away as quickly as possible.

“Kuro, I don’t wanna run, it’s too hot,” Kenma protests, stopping under a building still in construction.

Nearby, the black cat’s tail swishes. Tetsurou doesn’t have time to tell him about his dream – metal rods fall from up a scaffold and the world is covered in blood splatter. His shout is stifled by the heat. The cat, behind the bloodshed, licks its paw like nothing happened.

* * *

When he wakes up, Tetsurou feels like he hasn’t slept. One week, or two ? An infinite amount. Kenma is sitting down on the swings and Tetsurou doesn’t even say hello. What’s the point ? The cat is here, as always, and it mocks him from Kenma’s lap. It will soon get going, or Tetsurou will, up to the crosswalk – that’s the closest one.

Kenma will die.

“I don’t like summer,” he whispers, as if he knew. It’s been weeks, he must know by now. The heat haze seems to distort the universe itself.

“I love you, Kenma,” Tetsurou whispers, but he doesn’t hear it.

Tetsurou doesn’t even walk up to the crossing and closes his eyes when he hears the tires squeak.

* * *

Months and months. Kenma sits on the swing, he knows without even checking. Tetsurou doesn’t try to get up and waits in his room, smothered by the heat, for darkness to swallow him whole.

* * *

Morbid curiosity gets him out of bed, stronger than his nausea. Day after day, ever since he found out that staying in his room was no use. Something like wanting to hurt, under this blazing sun that stares at them, unblinking.

“You never told me you didn’t like summer.”

“It’s too hot,” Kenma says, but he still gets up to run after the cat.

* * *

Please, let him live, just this once – Tetsurou runs as fast as he can, Kenma’s hand in his. They zoom past the scaffold. The shimmering heat seems to grasps at their clothes to slow them down, the sun scratches their skin with it’s rays, but they’re running. Tetsurou feels his heart clench when they reach the railing above the train station.

“Kenma, what are you doing-”

He doesn’t hear him, leaning down over a black cat that came out of nowhere. Tetsurou doesn’t have time to scream before he slips and falls. The smell of asphalt is covered by that of blood.

* * *

There’s nothing else to do. Tetsurou drags his feet to the swing set, hoping Kenma won’t be there. He is, as always.

He whispers that he loves him after Kenma is done speaking but he doesn’t hear, as always.

The truck comes in and runs him over. As always.

* * *

Fourteenth of August. Again. Tetsurou wants to throw up, and his eyes are circled with dark – Kenma is petting a cat and doesn’t look up when he comes by.

“I love you, kitten,” Tetsurou says, louder this time. He wants to be heard.

Kenma startles, and the cat swiftly jumps from his lap. He looks at them defiantly and starts running. They follow, Kenma taking the lead, his fists clenched.

The traffic lights turn red and Tetsurou hears the truck coming before he can even see it. He rushes forward – Kenma has always been smaller, it’s easy to push him to the side. Before the truck hits him, Tetsurou sees the cat on the sidewalk, and smiles.

“I’ve won this time,” he says.

The last image he sees is Kenma’s widening eyes, and a red veil closes his eyelids.

* * *

The alarm clock rings and Kenma buries his head into his arms. On his bed, a black cat purrs to comfort him.

“I failed to save him again.”

**Author's Note:**

> please leave comments and kudos !!!


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